JULY 8 PGCBL: Dawgs blow lead, recover to beat Blue Sox

LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. – The Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs let a 5-0 lead get away early in Saturday’s Strike Out Breast Cancer game but bounced back to beat the Utica Blue Sox 9-6.

The DiamondDawgs scored four runs in the first inning and one in the second; Utica countered with five in the top of the third.

Mohawk Valley broke the tie in the bottom of the fourth. Hofstra University outfielder Austin Pollack singled with two outs and scored the go-ahead run when Russ Olive from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell followed with a double.

Olive went 3-for-3 in the win and reached base five times with a pair of walks. The fourth-inning rally continued after he had given the DiamondDawgs the lead at Veterans Memorial Park. Monmouth University’s Clay Koniencki drew a walk, and Columbia University’s Ben Porter and Sacramento State University’s Dan Deely hit run-scoring singles to make it an 8-5 game.

Jonathan McKinney, Mohawk Valley’s Auburn University-bound starter, had already been through one five-run inning when the top of the fifth started with back-to-back singles for the Blue Sox. Herkimer College’s Jon Sell was summoned from the bullpen and worked out of the inning with a ground ball and a double play.

Sell went four innings in his longest outing in two Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League seasons, allowing one run on four hits, and earning his first win for the DiamondDawgs. Dartmouth College right-hander Clay Chatham pitched the ninth inning and earned his first save.

The DiamondDawgs jumped on Riley Moore, the Utica starter from Diablo Valley Community College, in the first inning. They had four straight hits and six consecutive batters reached base while producing four runs. Olive’s run-scoring single made it 5-0 in the bottom of the second.

The Blue Sox had five hits in their five-run third, starting with a double by the University of Buffalo’s Kyle Norman, and ending with a two-run double by Rob Andreoli who scored the tying run on a hit by Long Island University-Post teammate Jimmy Mendyk.

Olive scored three runs while Pollack had two hits and three runs, Porter had three hits and two RBI, and Deely had two hits and drove in two runs.

Andreoli had two hits and drove in two runs for Utica.

After the game, the DiamondDawgs auctioned their pink jerseys to raise money for the K.S. Smith-Congdon Scholarship Fund. The auction raised $486, with McKinney’s bringing the highest price, $70.

The DiamondDawgs had Sunday off and travel to Boonville Monday for a game against the Adirondack Trail Blazers. They return to Little Falls for games Monday against Utica and Tuesday against Adirondack.